Thursday, January 24, 2008

Early Dropouts.


Statistically speaking very few delegates have been selected for the party conventions. Any candidate who did well in a couple of the upcoming primaries would almost instantly become the front runner. But more and more candidates are dropping out when only a tiny percentage of the American people have voted (or caucused, or pretended to vote*) so far. Mathematically the race has barely started.

So why are candidates dropping out?
Especially candidates like Dennis Kucinich who should be in the race just to broaden and deepen the dialog?

Probably Money.
Money and the lack of exposure provided by the main-stream media, which has been blocking candidates out of televised debates for an ever shifting list of reasons while allowing other poorly performing candidates like Rudy Giuliani to participate.
So I wish a sad farewell to Dennis Kucinich who has pulled out of the race. He told the truth. He was willing to fight for America. But he was not a friend of the corporations that own the networks. I am also sad to learn that Dennis' brother died recently. His voice will be missed in the presidential campaign. I wish him Good luck with his Congressional reelection campaign, because his voice is still needed in the Congress.

The end result of the current party controlled process is that a tiny number of people get to limit the choices for the rest of us. And when there are no good choices we end up using our votes to try and stop the worst choice from getting elected. Tweedle-Dumb vs. Tweedle-Dumber is not a real choice.

*I have discovered that our local Washington State Primary results will be "ignored" by the Democratic Party who will send delegates to the convention based on caucus results. So we only get to pretend to vote in the presidential primary here in the Washington. The national parties have also chosen to ignore the votes in several other states as well and will not allow delegates from states like Michigan who disobeyed the Party and set their own dates for primaries without permission. Any remaining illusions of democracy are quickly fading away in this country.

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